A forgotten 80s horror movie that was shot on video tape is the perfect way for Mondo to resurrect VHS for a new generation.

VHS is dead, they said. But Mondo never listened to what ‘they’ had to say, and so our sister company has geared up to relaunch VHS on a deserving public, starting with the 80s slasher (or smasher, really) movie Sledgehammer. Shot on VHS, Sledgehammer is the perfect way for Mondo to begin their collector home video label.

Check out the awesome Monod Video logo on the Sledgehammer trailer below:

Here’s the press release, with the usual insane quotes from Zack Carlson:

Austin, TX—- Monday May 9, 2011—- Mondo, the collectible art boutique arm of Alamo Drafthouse
Cinema, is pleased to announce a partnership with Intervision Picture Corporation to release 1983’s
SLEDGEHAMMER on VHS. SLEDGEHAMMER, the first shot-on-tape slasher movie for the home
video market, will be the first video release of Mondo Video, a label created to release rare genre films
in a collectible VHS format. The VHS release will coincide with the film’s first release on DVD and a
Terror Tuesday screening on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX. Mondo Video’s
SLEDGEHAMMER includes the original box art and copy from the 1983 VHS release and will be available
for purchase only at MondoTees.com on Wednesday, May 11, 2011. The Intervision DVD will also be
available for purchase on Tuesday, May 10, 2011.

Mondo creative director Justin Ishmael says, “I am downright crazy about VHS, so it gives me great pride
that we get to make SLEDGEHAMMER the first release on our new Mondo Video label. There has been
a major resurgence in VHS collecting the last few years after it was announced that the tapes would stop
being made, so being fans ourselves, we jumped at the opportunity to actually resurrect the format and
release some of our favorite movies on VHS. People thought they killed the video tape back in 2008, but
like a phoenix, it is rising from the ashes! Never Forget!”

“Either by way of budget constraints, warped vision or both,” says Intervision marketing director Evan
Husney, “SLEDGEHAMMER is a piece of a cinematic underbelly from a universe all its own. This is the
new cult canon: Buried in obscurity and ripe for reintroduction, it delivers top-shelf bizarro derangement,
gonzo action, transcendental fever dreams and beyond.”

Alamo Drafthouse’s Terror Tuesday programmer Zack Carlson, says “1940s scientists put years of
study into creating the nuclear bomb, but it wasn’t until the first tests at Los Alamos that they realized its
inhuman powers of absolute destruction. Four decades later, filmmaker David Prior similarly unveiled
SLEDGEHAMMER, a shot-on-VHS masterstroke of anti-intellectual decimation. On that day, cinema
quietly crumbled into dust. Ted Prior (star of Deadly Prey; brother of the director) leads a cast of self-
loathing alcoholics who face off against a shape-shifting, dimension-crossing spectre with a penchant for
blunt object trauma. By the end, brains, bowels and Budweiser will be smeared across every inch of the
walls.

A rewardingly lethal collision of ‘80s slasher video-vomit, suburban legend and unintentional surrealist
art, Prior’s supernaturally disabled death opera is the most visionary migraine to ever pummel its way
into your skull. If you survive it, you’ll never ever forget it.” Get tickets here

Among the DVD’s bonus features will be the short segment “HAMMERTIME!,” where the Alamo’s
Terror Tuesday programmer Zack Carlson talks about the unique majesty of SLEDGEHAMMER and the
unstoppable, incalculable power of ‘80s shot-on-video horror in general.

About the Author: A ten year veteran of writing for the web, Devin has built a reputation as a loud, uncompromising and honest voice – sometimes to the chagrin of his readers, but usually to their delight.